India to take on Australia in Champions Trophy

Karachi, March 23 (IANS) India will clash with defending champions and top seed Australia in their first match of the Champions Trophy at Gadaffi stadium in Lahore Sep 13. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the schedule and venues for this year’s ICC Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan from Sep 11-28.

ICC said a security assessment of the strife-torn country would be done in June before the tournament kicks off.

“As discussed at the ICC Board meeting earlier this week in Dubai, a full independent security assessment of the situation in Pakistan will be conducted in June,” ICC said in a release.

India is placed in Group A alongside Pakistan, West Indies and Australia. India will take on West Indies in Karachi Sep 16 and their last league match will be against hosts Pakistan Sep 20 in Lahore.

Pakistan will face 2004 winner and 2006 runner-up West Indies in the tournament opener Sep 11 in Lahore. Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the three venues for this year’s event in which only the top eight sides compete.

The length of the tournament has been cut short as compared to the 2006 edition in India. The tournament will have 15 matches in 17 days.

The first semi-final will be played at the National Stadium in Karachi Sep 24 while Rawalpindi will host the second semi-final Sep 25.

Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which hosted the final of the 1996 World Cup, will host the final Sep 28.

The groupings and seeding were finalised March 12 on the basis of teams’ rankings in the ODI Championship table.

The eight teams were then split into two groups of four with a round-robin format in operation. The top two sides from each group will progress to the knock-out stage.